The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) has issued the following action alert to all of its members and affiliates for urgent action to prevent the House of Representatives from repealing essential benefits vital to the brain injury survivors under the Affordable Health Care Act. The proposed amendments would deprive victims of traumatic brain injury the essential services they require. it is important that all brain injury survivors, family members and friends ACT TODAY to PROTECT ESSENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS AND REHABILITATION SERVICES TO BRAIN INJURY SURVIVORS.

The House Freedom Caucus is pushing for an amendment to the American Health Care Act to eliminate essential health benefits (EHB) requirements in the private market. Eliminating EHB requirements would allow insurers to once more use benefit design to avoid covering services for high cost enrollees. This would have a devastating impact on people living with brain injuries, who would again struggle to find health insurance plans covering needed services. Rehabilitation is an EHB and is essential to individuals with brain injury post injury. Continued rehabilitation may also be necessary throughout their lives.

EHB includes many services that people living with brain injury depend on, such as outpatient care, emergency services, hospitalizations, maternity care, mental health and substance abuse disorder services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services, laboratory services, preventive services, and pediatric services. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, many insurers in the individual market avoided covering these services, with 62% of insurers omitting maternity coverage, 34% omitting coverage for substance use disorder treatments, and 9% omitting prescription drug coverage. If this amendment passes, many insurers would once again exclude services based on pre-existing conditions, preventing many people living with brain injury from getting the care they need for their most pressing health care concerns. Insurers would likely also purposefully choose to offer poor benefits in order to attract healthy enrollees while discriminating against people living with brain injury.

It is vital that individuals with brain injury and their families/caregivers/providers make it clear to their representatives today that it is unacceptable to strip these minimum consumer protections out of the health insurance market. The House intends to vote on the American Health Care Act, potentially with an amendment to repeal EHB, today, March 23, 2017. Advocates can dial 1-866-426-2631 (English) or 1-877-736-7831 (Spanish) to be connected to their representatives.

This is a sample script that can be used:

Hello my name is _______ and I live in [city, state]. I am a person [living with a brain injury/concerned about individuals with brain injury]. I am calling to demand that you vote against the American Health Care Act. I also urge you to vote against any amendment that would remove critical consumer protections like essential health benefits. The American Health Care Act will hurt people living with pre-existing conditions by making it harder and more expensive to get the care they need. All Americans deserve better. I urge you to support the 5.3 million individuals living with disabilities as a result from a TBI and oppose the American Health Care Act.

Below are a list of moderate House Republicans who are especially important to reach today:

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) submitted written testimony this week to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies calling for increased fiscal year 2018 appropriations for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Act programs, including the state grant program, and for TBI Model Systems research funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

The TBI Act, which was originally passed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2008 and 2014, is the only federal law that specifically addresses the needs of the growing population of TBI survivors.

The programs authorized under the TBI Act provide public awareness and education through the CDC and State TBI care capacity-building and protection, legal, referral, and advocacy services at the Administration for Community Living. Furthermore, the TBI Model Systems of Care at the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) represent a vital national network of TBI research and expertise—providing the only source of non-proprietary longitudinal data on TBI experiences and a key source of evidence-based medicine.

Critical funding is also required for the CDC to establish and oversee a national surveillance system to accurately determine the incidence of concussions, particularly among the most vulnerable of Americans—our children and youth

The brain injury attorneys at DE CARO & KAPLEN, LLP, are pleased to offer a scholarship for a student who is a survivor of traumatic brain injury and is pursuing a college education. Full scholarship details and the application can be viewed at our web site, De Caro & Kaplen, LLP

Please feel free to share this information on your web site.

Every year our partners, Shana De Caro and Michael Kaplen, devote their time and dedicate a portion of our firm’s fees to brain injury education, prevention and advocacy. We are nationally recognized for our leadership roles in the field of brain injury law. Shana De Caro is a member of the board of directors of the Brain Injury Association of America. Michael V. Kaplen is three term past president of the Brain Injury Association of New York State. Shana and Michael have each served as chairperson of the American Association for Justice Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group. We have created a brain injury scholarship to assist survivors of traumatic brain injuries who want to pursue a college education.

Our attorneys help people who have sustained brain damage caused by all types of accidents. As advocates for people with a brain injury and their families, we have witnessed the incredible hardships they have endured and the dedication and determination that are necessary to help rebuild their lives. We want to recognize an individual’s hard work and perseverance in living with a brain injury and pursuing his/her dreams and goals.

This scholarship is an important reminder that each and every person who has sustained a traumatic brain injury is an individual, not just a statistic. Today many industries place profits over safety, such as the trucking and motor vehicle industry, construction industry, negligent doctors, and sports organizations, both professional and school or community-based. We lose sight of the full impact these injuries have on both the individual and family. A life can be changed in an instant.

In honor of Brain Injury Awareness Month a scholarship of $ 1,000 will be awarded to one applicant for the year 2017.

Board Certified
American Board of Professional
Liability Attorneys
Medical Liability

Sustaining Member
American Association for Justice
Public Justice Foundation

Fellow
North American Brain Injury Association

The National Board of Trial Advocacy and the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys are not affiliated with any government authority. Certification is not a requirement for the practice of law in the State of New York and does not necessarily indicate greater competence than other attorneys experienced in this field of law.